Update: Centaur Patent At Heart of Via Suit Against Intel

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Via Technologies Inc.’s suit against Intel Corp. hinges upon a single patent granted to the company’s Centaur division earlier this year.

Via has based its entire case on a single patent, number 6,253,311, entitled “Instruction Set for Bi-Directional Conversion and Transfer of Integer and Floating Point Data”. The patent, granted to Via, on June 26, encompasses instruction-set conversion across a variety of data formats.

According to Richard Brown, Via’s diretor of marketing, the suit is the first is the first Via has ever filed. “If you look at our litigation record, this is the first time we’ve ever filed suit, period,” he said. “If you look at Intel’s record, they use ‘legal marketing’ as a (business) tactic.”

In its suit, Via claims that Intel’s Pentium 4 microprocessor infringes that “311” patent. The complaint, filed in a U.S. district court in Austin, Tex., asks for unspecified “injunctive relief” and any damages the court sees fit. Previously, a Via company spokesman had indicated that the relief could include a request for an injunction against the sale of the Pentium 4 microprocessor, and the corresponding Intel 845 chipset.

The suit fails to mention the Intel 845 or any chipset at all, although a separate complaint filed in Taiwan is expected to challenge Intel over the legality of the the 845 chipset.

“This is the first one we’ve filed,” Brown said. “That’s not to say that there won’t be more.”

Intel officials said they would challenge Via’s case. Intel originally filed suit against Via little more than two weeks ago, claiming that Via’s P4X266 and P4M266 chipsets infringed upon five Intel patents. Unlike other chipset manufacturers, Via is manufacturing the chipsets without a license to the Pentium 4 bus license owned by Intel.

“We did some preliminary analysis as we normally do when we’re a defendant in a case,” said a spokesman for Intel, Santa Clara, Calif. “Based on that analysis, we have concluded that the claim is without merit and we plan a vigorous defense.” The spokesman said that he couldn’t comment on the second claim Via had filed in Taiwan, as Intel’s office there hadn’t been served with the complaint as yet.

The “311” patent was granted to Glenn Henry and Timothy A. Elliott on June 26, according to the U.S. Patent Office, and applied for on Nov. 29, 1997. Intel’s Pentium 4 officially launched on November 20, 2000. Henry was formerly CEO of Centaur, and heads up Via’s C3 microprocessor design team, which emphasizes simplicity and low power. Via released an 866-MHz C3 processor last week.

Last week, analysts speculated that the suit and countersuit were simply legal exchanges that would lead to an eventual settlement and cross-license.

Motherboard makers have backed away from the legal spat and indicated that they may be reluctant to fomally commit to boards using the controversial P4X266 chipset from Via. Brown declined to directly respond when asked if the lawsuits had affected the company’s sales.

“I think you can draw your own conclusions as to why we filed this suit,” Brown said. “Their complaint seeks to prevent us from bringing the right products to market.”

Separately, Brown said a typhoon, called Nari, has done substantial damage to Taipei, and Via’s offices will be cloded for the next two days. Over 66 people have died with 23 still missing, according to the Associated Press on Tuesday, in part due to the massive flooding caused by Nari. Over a third of the city’s annual rainfall was dumped on the city in a single day, and power remains out to much of the city. Power remains on at the Hsinchu Science Park, however, the AP reported Monday.

Brown also added that Via is still committed to donating $1 million to the victims of the New York terrorist attacks, as the Taipei Times reported last week.